Parental Stress
by AnSionnach
Summary: Can't really give a summary or I'll give it away. Prompt from the Transformers bunny farm.


**Parental Stress - Prologue**

"Starscream?!"

The seeker in question winced as the snarling, static-laced voice of his master reached his audios. He had been mercifully silent since both mechs had fled Earth's atmosphere following their defeat at the hands of the Autobots and their disgusting fleshling allies. _Probably brooding over the loss of The Fallen's precious star destroying machine_, Starscream thought contemptuously as the Nemesis came into view, _as if the ancient fool's plan would have worked anyway_. In Starscream's eyes, his leader had long since lost sight of his original goal and as such, Starscream was always ready to seize command of the Decepticons. _But not today_, Starscream sighed mentally, before turning to his master and replying hesitantly:

"Yes, Lord Megatron?"

The once great silver tyrant, now dented and mangled with battle damage, took a moment to look Starscream in the optics before returning his gaze to the ship only a short distance away. They were flying in their root forms, not even daring to transform for fear that they might aggravate their injuries.

"We need to contact Soundwave," Megatron rasped. "We need to know how many of our troops made it out alive from the battle, so that we can regroup and formulate a new plan."

Starscream almost groaned at the predictability of the tyrant, but was prevented from replying immediately by their arrival at the entrance of the Decepticon warship. The tantalizing promise of warmth, energon and recharge temporarily alleviating his desire to punch his master square in the broken jaw. The hatch-door opened without much resistance, allowing the two battered Decepticons to step inside.

In the dim light, Starscream could just make out the shapes of the many hatching pods that littered the ship, each designed to hold the still-developing sparklings that were to become a new generation of Cybertronians, but without the Allspark or a reliable source of energon, the hatchlings had begun to starve. Grimacing, Starscream recalled the many cycles spent watching the increasingly weak hatchlings die, hoping that one would somehow manage to survive. But all his effort had eventually been proven fruitless. Week after week had passed, with sparklings weakening and dying every day, and as well as that, Starscream had to put up with cutting insults and snide remarks from the fallen one, berating him for his failure at keeping the sparklings alive

The seeker barely noticed Megatron brushing past him, passing the pods in the room without so much as sparing them a glance, on his way to the one remaining CR chamber on the ship that still functioned (if you use the word "function" in it's loosest possible sense).

Grumbling internally, Starscream made his way to the main communications terminal, and began to initiate the procedure that would allow Megatron to hone in on Soundwave's frequency. He was abruptly pulled from his thoughts by a strange chirping noise. The seeker stood up straight, optics scouring the room in order to locate the source of the noise. Starscream had assumed that he and Megatron were the only living occupants of the Nemesis. His leader had certainly not led him to believe otherwise. The noise soon repeated itself, closer this time. Two red lights flickered in the darkness of the cluttered room, darting left and right in panic. At least, Starscream _thought_ that Megatron and he were the only living occupants.

It sounded small, at least, by Cybertronian standards it did. _One of Soundwave's spies?_ Starscream shook his head, dismissing the possibility immediately. Soundwave always kept his miserable little runts with him when they were not on missions of their own. Besides, that chirping noise sounded nothing like them. In fact, it had sounded more like…

Starscream jumped as a small figure suddenly pounced at him, crashing into his torso and almost shattering the fragile glass of his cockpit. The creature was not particularly strong, but the unexpected attack was enough to throw the seeker off balance. A metallic squeal sounded as Starscream's body collided with the hard floor. Now flat on his back, the seeker's defense mechanisms took hold and automatically his weapons powered up with a high-pitched whine. He pointed them threateningly at the mass of black metal now perched on his chest, the light provided by his charging null-rays illuminating the form of his diminutive assailant. Only his utter shock prevented him from doing anything too drastic.

"STAHHH-SCWEAMMM!!!!" the sparkling yelled happily.

-------------

AN: Apologies for the short chapter. I will be taking requests for the baby's name, because Author-Reader interaction is teh win. :D


End file.
